The introspective hero of wings of Fire and A Test of Wills (Edgar
Award nominee) return in a provocative new mystery. Inspector Ian
Rutledge, haunted by memories of World War I and the harrowing
presence of Hamish, a dead soldier, is "a superb characterization of
a man whose wounds have made him a stranger i his own land." (The New
York Times Book Review)A dead woman two missing children bring
Inspector Rutledge to the lovely Dorset town of Singeton Magna, where
the truth lies buried with the dead. A tormented veteran whose family
died in an enemy bombing is the chief suspect. Dubious, Rutledge
presses on to find the real killer. And when another body is found in
the rich Dorset earth, his quest reaches into the secret lives of
villagers and Londoners whose privileged positions and private
passions give them every reason to thwart him. Someone is protecting
a murderer. And two children are out there, somewhere, the dark...
